This invention pertains to tools for installing tack strips to which the perimeter of a carpet or rug may be anchored and retained in a well understood manner.
Commonly, a tack strip comprises an elongated, somewhat flexible wooden strip displaying a multitude of sharp tack or nail points which penetrate the parallel top and bottom surfaces of the strip and protrude from the top surface at an acute angle thereto for piercing and gripping the backing of a carpet which is pressed into overlying contact with the strip. The forward edge of the strip toward which the points project is sloped at an acute angle relative to said top surface thereby forming a sharp frontal edge or nose which protrudes in the same direction as the points. The rear edge of the strip is normal to the top and bottom strip surfaces.
Since tack strips commonly display rough and splintered surfaces as well as the usual array of tack points, manual handling of these strips presents a formidable and longstanding personal hazard to workmen who routinely install such strips on the job. Conventionally, tack strips are installed on the floor of a room to be carpeted wall-to-wall by the following steps:
1. A number of strips are arranged on the floor about the perimeter of the work area in spaced relation to the line of intersection of the floor and the room walls or baseboards as the case may be. These strips may be laid or dropped by a workmen generally in end-to-end relationship and with the tack points and the tapered strip edge directed toward the wall. At this stage substantial missalignment of the strips relative to one another and relative to the wall surface is common and not unexpected. An inattentive or distracted workmen may inadvertantly position some or all of the several strips backward, i.e. with the tack points projecting not toward the wall but, instead, toward the interior of the room.
2. The installer, while kneeling on the floor, grasps an individual strip with his fingers and positions it with respect to a wall so that the full length of the tapered edge of the strip is spaced a predetermined distance from and generally in parallel with the facing surface of a wall, baseboard or other object. A hand-held gage strip or block is usually inserted between the strips and the room walls to maintain a preselected wall-to-strip spacing. The appropriate width of this space is determined by the thickness of the severed marginal edge of the carpet which is usually pressed downwardly over the nosed edges of the strips into the elongated channel defined by the wall, the floor and the front edge surface of the strip. The required width of the gage strip will vary from job to job. Such gages are commonly misplaced or lost only to be replaced by roughly crafted replacements made on the job.
3. While individual strips are held in spaced relation with an adjacent wall surface, the workman affixes the strips to the floor by hammering several anchor nails through each strip into the floor. Tack strips usually carry prestarted nails which extend vertically at spaced intervals along the elongated top surface of the strip. However, where short strip segments are required, nail starting holes must be made on the job by the tack strip installer.
Since the installation of tack strips must be completed prior to carpet attachment and stretching, speed and accuracy in the performance of this initial task is required so that carpet installation may go forward at a rapid and steady pace. However, in spite of the need for a high level of efficiency on the part of personnel charged with tack strip installation, this important job is often assigned to the most junior members of a carpet contractor's work crew because, as presently performed, this is considered by most workmen to be an irksome and unwanted task.
The major difficulty encountered in installing tack strips is the unavoidable trauma to an installer's fingers and hands from contact with the pointed tips of tacks or nails projecting from the multitude of strips he is required to move into place and then hold in position during the subsequent nailing operation. Not only are the several points on each strip spaced too closely together to afford easily accessed, point-free grasping surfaces; but, the extreme sharpness and acute angulation of the points usually results in skin piercing instantly upon contact and further painful trauma follows when the strip is thereafter squeezed sufficiently to lift or otherwise move the same from place to place. Installer's fingers and hands often become infected, scabbed and extremely sore under such adverse conditions. In an effort to reduce injury and economic loss caused by such repetitive puncturing, cutting and hooking, an installer may wear gloves or may heavily tape those fingers used to grasp the tack strip. However, such finger-worn protective expedients are largely ineffective not only because of rapid deterioration of the tape or the gloves, but mainly because of an unacceptable drop in strip manipulating speed when such measures are taken. Even experienced tack strip installers may become so highly irritated and frustrated by repetitive traumatic contacts with tack points that they cannot perform this task in a consistantly proficient manner. Disconcerted workmen, experienced or not, have been known to nail tack strips in place with the tack points projecting in the wrong direction thereby causing a costly work delay to correct the fault when carpet installation was later begun. Erratic strip-to-wall spacing is a more common, but no less troublesome, problem which usually requires removal and replacement of the misaligned strip or strips whereby carpet installers are held up accordingly and must be temporarily diverted to other tasks.
The foregoing general description of the conventional method of tack strip installation and the recitation of the several longstanding problems encountered suggest that an implement or tool for obviating these problems would contribute significantly to the safety and productivity of professional installers and would correspondingly reduce monetary losses incurred by carpet installation contractors due to on-the-job delays and employee injuries. An installation tool designed to meet these challanging requirements would have at least these desirable characteristics and capabilities:
Use of the tool will substantially reduce or eliminate hazardous manual handling of tack strips during the positioning and nailing steps. PA1 The tool structure incorporates adjusting means providing substantial regulation of the spacing between the tack strip and an adjacent wall. PA1 The tool itself will indicate to the user when a tack strip engaged by such tool is reversed i.e. the tack points are pointed away from an adjacent wall. PA1 Proficiency in the use of the tool can be quickly developed by inexperienced installers. PA1 The tool is a compact hand-held type and is, therefore, easy to manipulate. PA1 The tool is made of standard materials and by common manufacturing processes and assembly technics. PA1 While the tool displays compactness and light weight, it is ruggedly constructed to resist damage due to rough handling and careless storage. PA1 Due to the simplicity of its structure, the tool can be mass produced at low cost and can be purchased at a correspondingly low price.